When, in the course of human events, it becomes
necessary for one portion of the family of man to assume among the people of the
earth a position different from that which they have hitherto occupied, but one
to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect
to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes that impel
them to such a course.

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that
all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit
of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted, deriving
their just powers from the consent of the governed. Whenever any form of government
becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of those who suffer from it
to refuse allegiance to it, and to insist upon the institution of a new government,
laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form,
as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence
indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for
light and transient causes and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind
are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves
by abolishing the forms to which they were accustomed. But when a long train of
abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to
reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their duty to throw off such government,
and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient
sufferance of the women under this government, and such is now the necessity which
constrains them to demand the equal station to which they are entitled.

The history of mankind is a history of repeated
injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in direct object
the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her. To prove this, let facts be
submitted to a candid world.

He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable
right to the elective franchise.

He has compelled her to submit to laws, in the
formation of which she had no voice.

He has withheld from her rights which are given
to the most ignorant and degraded menboth natives and foreigners.

Having deprived her of this first right of a
citizen, the elective franchise, thereby leaving her without representation in
the halls of legislation, he has oppressed her on all sides.

He has made her, if married, in the eye of the
law, civilly dead.

He has taken from her all right in property,
even to the wages she earns.

He has made her, morally, an irresponsible being,
as she can commit many crimes with impunity, provided they be done in the presence
of her husband. In the covenant of marriage, she is compelled to promise obedience
to her husband, he becoming, to all intents and purposes, her masterthe
law giving him power to deprive her of her liberty, and to administer chastisement.

He has so framed the laws of divorce, as to
what shall be the proper causes, and in case of separation, to whom the guardianship
of the children shall be given, as to be wholly regardless of the happiness of
womenthe law, in all cases, going upon a false supposition of the supremacy
of man, and giving all power into his hands.

After depriving her of all rights as a married
woman, if single, and the owner of property, he has taxed her to support a government
which recognizes her only when her property can be de profitable to it.

He has monopolized nearly all the profitable
employments, and from those she is permitted to follow, she receives but a scanty
remuneration. He closes against her all the avenues to wealth and distinction
which he considers most honorable to himself. As a teacher of theology, medicine,
or law, she is not known.

He has denied her the facilities for obtaining
a thorough education, all colleges being closed against her.

He allows her in Church, as well as State, but
a subordinate position, claiming Apostolic authority for her exclusion from the
ministry, and, with some exceptions, from any public participation in the affairs
of the Church.

He has created a false public sentiment by giving
to the world a different code of morals for men and women, by which moral delinquencies
which exclude women from society, are not only tolerated, but deemed of little
account in man.

He has usurped the prerogative of Jehovah himself,
claiming it as his right to assign for a sphere of action, when that belongs to
conscience and to her God.

He has endeavored, in every way that he could,
to destroy her confidence in her own powers, to lessen her self-respect, and to
make willing to lead a dependent and abject life. Now, in view of this entire
disfranchisement one-half the people of this country, their social and religious
degradationin view of the unjust laws above mentioned, and because women
do feel themselves aggrieved, oppressed, and fraudulently deprived of their most
sacred rights, we insist that they have immediate admission to all the rights
and privileges which long to them as citizens of the United States.

In entering upon the great work before us, we
anticipate no small amount of misconception, misrepresentation, and ridicule;
but we shall use every instrumentality within our power to effect our object.
We shall employ agents, circulate tracts, petition the State and National legislatures,
and endeavor to enlist the pulpit and the press in our behalf. We hope this Convention
will be followed by a series of Conventions embracing every part of the country.

WHEREAS, The great precept of nature is conceded
to be, that "man shall pursue his own true and substantial happiness."
Blackstone in his Commentaries remarks, that this law of Nature being coeval with
mankind, and dictated by God himself, is of course superior in obligation to any
other. It is binding over all the globe, in all countries and at all times; no
human laws are of any validity if contrary to this, and such of them as are valid,
derive all their force, and all their validity, and all their authority, mediately
and immediately, from this original; therefore,

Resolved, That such laws as conflict, in any
way, with the true and substantial happiness of woman, are contrary to the great
precept of nature and of no validity, for this is "superior in obligation
to any other."

Resolved, That all laws which prevent woman
from occupying such a station in society as her conscience shall dictate, or which
place her in a position inferior to that of man, are contrary to the great precept
of nature, and therefore of no force or authority.

Resolved, That woman is man's equalwas
intended to be so by the Creator, and the highest good of the race demands that
she should be recognized as such.

Resolved, That the women of this country ought
to be enlightened in regard to the laws under which they live, that they may no
longer publish their degradation by declaring themselves satisfied with their
present position, nor their ignorance, by asserting that they have all the rights
they want.

Resolved, That inasmuch as man, while claiming
for himself intellectual superiority, does accord to woman moral superiority,
it is pre-eminently his duty to encourage her to speak and teach, as she has an
opportunity, in all religious assemblies .

Resolved, That the same amount of virtue, delicacy,
and refinement of behavior that is required of woman in the social state, should
also be required of man, and the same transgressions should be visited with equal
severity on both man and woman.

Resolved, That the objection of indelicacy and
impropriety, which is so often brought against woman when she addresses a public
audience, comes with a very ill-grace from those who encourage, by their attendance,
her appearance on the stage, in the concert, or in feats of the circus.

Resolved, That woman has too long rested satisfied
in the circumscribed limits which corrupt customs and a perverted application
of the scriptures have marked out for her, and that it is time she should move
in the enlarged sphere which her great Creator has assigned her.

Resolved, That it is the duty of the women of
this country to secure to themselves their sacred right to the elective franchise.

Resolved, That the equality of human rights
results necessarily from the fact of the identity of the race in capabilities
and responsibilities.

Resolved, therefore, That, being invested by
the Creator with the same capabilities, and the same consciousness of responsibility
for their exercise, it is demonstrably the right and duty of woman, equally with
man, to promote every righteous cause by every righteous means, and especially
in regard to the great subjects of morals and religion, it is self-evidently her
right to participate with her brother in teaching them, I both in private and
in public, by writing and by speaking, by any instrumentalities proper to be used,
and m any assemblies proper to be held; and this being a self-evident truth growing
out of the divinely implanted principles of human nature, any custom or authority
adverse to it, whether modern or wearing the hoary sanction of antiquity, is to
be regarded as a self-evident falsehood, and at war with mankind

Resolved, That the speedy success of our cause
depends upon the zealous and untiring efforts of both men and women, for the overthrow
of the monopoly of the pulpit, and for the securing to woman an equal participation
with men in the various trades, professions, and commerce.

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